US EQUITY OPEN: Indices in the green as SPCX surges again as FOMC on Wednesday awaits
OPEN: US indices opened with upside bias in pretty thin newsflow, given the US/Iran peace agreement, and as traders await the FOMC confab on Wednesday and Chair Warsh’s first press conference. On the stock footing, SpaceX (SPCX) has surged, again, and has passed Amazon (AMZN) in market cap. Sectors are largely in the green with Industrials and Financials sitting atop of the pile, while Energy, Tech, and Health are the only sectors in the red. WTI and Brent are lower by c. USD 2.50/bbl and pressured on news that Qatar is to restore half of its LNG output a month after the Strait of Hormuz opens, with output to reach 80% of full output within two months. Treasuries are pretty flat across the curve ahead of the US 20yr auction. The Dollar is mixed vs. G10 peers, and in contained ranges, with two G10 rate decisions overnight; BoJ hiked rates to 1.00%, as expected, while the RBA left rates unchanged at 4.35% following three consecutive 25bps rate hikes. Precious metals are slightly firmer. On the data footing, housing starts were soft while building permits were in line, while import and export prices both rose more than anticipated. Weekly ADP printed 25.5k, against last week's 29k.
STOCK SPECIFICS:
- SpaceX (SPCX) is to acquire Anysphere for USD 60bln
- Mobileye Global (MBLY) launching its own robotaxi service in the US in ’27.
- Equinix (EQIX) collabs w/ Cisco (CSCO) & Nvidia (NVDA) to deploy secure AI factories across global data centre footprint.
- Yum! Brands (YUM) enters agreements to sell Pizza Hut for USD 2.7bln & board approves incremental USD 4bln buyback programme.
- Robinhood (HOOD) to lay off ~10% of its workforce
- Huntsman (HUN) agreed to merge w/ rival Olin (OLN) in an all-stock deal; deal is expected to close in H1 ‘2.
- Dave & Buster's (PLAY): Weak quarterly results.